What is SQL Operations Studio (SQLOPS)?

Posted on by Ian

UPDATE: SQL Operations Studio has since been renamed to Azure Data Studio.

SQL Operations Studio (sometimes abbreviated to SQLOPS, SQL Ops Studio, or SQL Ops) is a free, cross-platform tool that can be used to manage SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, and Azure SQL Data Warehouse.

A newly created database

SQLOPS uses a graphical user interface (GUI), so you can point and click your way around the interface. That said, SQLOPS is a lightweight tool, so not everything can be done using point and click. However, you can always point and click your way to the query editor, where you can run SQL queries for almost anything you need to do.

SQLOPS is available for the macOS, Linux, and Windows operating systems.

What can I do in SQL Operations Studio?

SQL Operations Studio lets you do stuff like:

  • Create databases and manage them
  • Browse database objects (such as databases, views, etc)
  • Execute SQL queries
  • View and save results as text, JSON, or Excel
  • Edit data directly within a cell
  • Organize and manage database connections
  • Backup and restore databases

Features of SQL Operations Studio

Some of the features of SQLOPS include:

  • Multiple tab windows
  • Rich SQL editor
  • IntelliSense
  • Keyword completion
  • Code snippets and code navigation
  • Source control integration (Git and TFS)
  • Integrated terminal. You can run command line tools such as Bash, PowerShell, sqlcmd, bcp, ssh, etc right from within the SQLOPS interface.

Why use SQL Operations Studio?

There are many options for managing SQL Server, so you might be wondering why anyone would want to use SQLOPS. After all, there are command line tools like mssql-cli, sql-cli, and sqlcmd. And there are GUIs like SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) and  SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).

In particular, SSMS has traditionally been a popular option, mainly because it was once included as an option during the SQL Server installation process. However, SSMS is now provided as a separate installation to SQL Server, so either way, if you want a GUI, you need to download and install it separately to your SQL Server installation.

One reason you might not use SSMS is that it’s a Windows application, so it’s not even an option if you’re running Linux or macOS. Also, SSMS is a a more full-blown management tool, which may be overkill, depending on your needs.

SQL Operations Studio, on the other hand, is a lightweight tool that can get you up and running quickly with SQL Server.

And one big benefit that SQLOPS has over SSMS is that it can run on Linux and macOS. So if you’re running Linux or Mac, definitely give SQL Ops Studio a try.

I should point out that, at the time of writing, SQLOPS is in preview mode, so even if you don’t find it useful now, it could be worth keeping an eye on for the future.

Try SQL Operations Studio

I’ve written a tutorial on how to install SQLOPS on a Mac and open a connection to SQL Server. Basically, installing SQL Operations Studio is just as easy as installing any other software, so even if you use Linux or Windows, you should be able to work it out.

I’ve also written a quick tutorial on creating a database with SQLOPS, and how to restore a database with SQLOPS on a Mac in case you need it.

Official SQLOPS Websites

Here’s the Microsoft page for SQL Server Operations Studio.

And here’s the SQLOPS Github page.